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Sunday, July 13, 2014

What happened at KOOKS ... We mocked, shocked and rocked!

June 20th 2014 was the debut of a new show which I am half of...and we call it "Kooks." My BFF Margo and I put together a show with more a dark humor and goofy edge. We've both spent a lot of time being a apart of other people's troops and groups so it was time to create our own. For the Queer community, we are considered pretty weird and I guess unconventional. SUB-Mission was a perfect venue for us. Everyone working that night was super accommodating and on hand whenever we had a question. It's more than easy to over think and freak out when you're putting on a show. You imagine everything that can go wrong and feel like 'everyone will be mad at you." It's just SILLY, but those were my worries leading up to the show.

Becca as Tina Belcher

Once the DJ set up and I did a mic check...all my anxieties disappeared. We had planned and practiced and now it was time to get the show on the road. Being our opening night, it was mainly Margo and I performing. Obviously it was a great outlet to execute our ideas that have been sitting anxiously on the back burner. I had to pull a lot of different acts together that night. We opened with the two of us welcoming our audience to Kooks, letting them know what we're all about. Margo was dressed in detailed make up and dark clothes while I dressed like Mork wearing my rainbow suspenders and red Star Wars shirt.

The first number after we played our theme song (Bowie's "Kooks" acoustic) was my impression of Tina Belcher from Bob's Burger's. I did a karaoke version of the Turtles "Happy Together" claiming it was a song by my favorite land animal. I dedicated the song to Jimmy Pesto Jr, because that's how it should be. That was fun and good warm up for all the things I had to do for the rest of the show. My next number was Peter No-One a new character I created, he "calls birds blokes and blokes birds" and he is a Dandy. I came out and sang live in front of an audience for the first time in a very long time. Margo graciously accompanied me on the keyboard with the tabs to David Bowie's "Right on Mother." My voice cracked at one point in the song, which was perfect because I was singing about being trans and saying "That I'm a man."

Becca as "Peter No-One"

It made the audience laugh and honestly was perfect timing. It made me laugh a bit but I easily carried on without fear. Singing live is a scary thing to me, and I've never fancied myself a singer of any kind (karaoke?). The came my performance as an homage to William Shatner, dressed in a suit. I was referencing his version of "Rocket Man" by carrying around an e-cigarette "Shatnerizing" the lyrics to "Take a picture" by Filter. This much like my Peter No-One performance have been sifting around in my brain for a few years. Sometimes you get a good idea where you just can't stop laughing and you know you need to do it. And it ends up even better than you would have imagined once you execute it. I'd like to do this act again and refine it and maybe even record it and post it on Youtube.

Our DJ for the event was the awesome Davey Bones, whom I met through my website, Bite-the-dust.com. He too is a local E-villian, (Emeryville) and was a terrific fit for us. He played awesome music between sets and played the kind of music *I would play* which coming from me is definitely high marks. Kooks was a great night due to many factors, but probably most notably the team work of everyone and the open mindedness of the audience. Margo and I finished the night with a number together which we titled "Truly Madly Deeply Gay" which was us making a mockery of Duck Dynasty and their anti-gay remarks. I timed the music to a slideshow to funny clip art that helped put our performance over the top (in a good way of course). There was so much laughter coming from the audience. We interpretive-ly danced our butts off and finished the night in our giant dressing room wiping off the sweat.

Shatnerize!

That night Margo performed an original number, a song she wrote accompanied by an acoustic guitar called "Symphony of Screams." She also did a strip tease and light blood play to Billy Idol's "Dancing with myself." She certainly shocked the audience, but no one was bothered. Our friend Heather (no doubt, a Kook) aka Tony Technique also performed with us that night. She has all these smooth dance moves and knows how to evoke an audience. I always enjoy getting to watch her move. I will never dance like that! The event was fun and comfortable, it felt great to be walking around in my own event I helped be apart of. I love the feeling of being around my own people, for me that is the ultimate in comfort and security. I felt great at the end of the night...we did it. We made it happen! Lately I've been in the train of thought that I need to run towards whatever scares me. And it scares me to be myself and put myself out there...especially in front of a live audience. Now I know I can do it, and I know we can do it again.

This show was also the debut of my comic stand up, which was really fun to do. During my stand up I talked about peer pressure, being transgender and how much I like candy. I just went up there and was myself which I think is the key to just about anything. The next Kooks I plan to do a longer stand up and I'm really looking forward to making people laugh.

The next Kooks is scheduled for late August, we are currently figuring out the date with the owner of SUB-Mission. I will keep you up to date on upcoming shows, and don't forget YOU can perform with us too!

Some of the music we played that night:
NIN "The Hand That Feeds" and Rick Astley Remix "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Ween "Push The Little Daisies."
Colleen Green "Normal Girl"
Roky Erickson " I Walked With A Zombie
The Monkees "Shorty Blackwell"
David Lynch "These Are My Friends"
The Muppets Barbershop Quartet "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Queen "Dont Try Suicide"